The p53 protein was discovered as a nuclear protein binding to the large T antigen of the DNA tumor virus SV40 and its gene (p53 gene) has been cloned. At first, the p53 gene was considered to be an oncogene because the transfer of this gene and the ras gene together into cells resulted in transformation of embryonal cells. Later studies, however, revealed that the initially cloned p53 gene was a mutant type and that the wild type rather suppressed the transforming activity of the mutant type. By now, deletions or anomalies in the p53 gene have been detected in many human cancers and a gamate mutation of the p53 gene was also discovered in Li-Fraumeni syndrome which is known to be a hereditary disease with a high risk for malignant conversion. Because of these and other findings, the p53 gene has by now been considered to be an important suppressor oncogene [Baker, S. J., et al., Science, 244, 217-221 (1989): Nigro, J. M., Nature, 342, 705-708 (1989)].
The human p53 protein consists of 393 amino acid residues and can be roughly divided into the N-terminal domain (the 1˜101st amino acid region), the core domain (the 102˜292nd amino acid region), and the C-terminal domain (the 293˜393rd amino acid region). The N-terminal domain contains sequences necessary for transcriptional regulation, such as acidic amino acids and a high-proline region, and is considered to be a transcriptional activator domain. The central core domain contains 3 hydrophobic sites and is a domain associated with nucleotide sequence-specific DNA binding. The C-terminal domain contains many basic amino acids and a sequence necessary for tetramerization and is considered to be responsible for recognition of nonspecific DNA binding and DNA damage and inhibition of transformation.
Many of the p53 gene abnormalities detected in human cancer cells are missense mutations and most of them are concentrated in the core domain corresponding to the 100˜300th amino acid sequence from the N terminus, particularly in the region called “hot-spot” which has been conserved among species. The hot-spot region in the core domain is the sequence associated with the binding between p53 protein and DNA and, actually, mutation of this region results in the inhibition of specific binding to DNA.
It became clear from the above that the p53 protein plays the role of a transcriptional control factor which binds specifically to other genes to modulate expression of the genes.
The gene whose transcription is induced by the p53 protein includes, among others, the p21 gene [known as WAF1, CIP1, or SDI1 (EI-Dairy, W. S., et al., Cell, 75, 817 (1993)); MDM2 (Wu. X., et al., Genes Dev., 7, 1126 (1993)); MCK (Weintraub. H., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 88, 4570 (1991): Zambetti. G. P., et al., Genes Dev., 6, 1143 (1992))], GADD45 [Kastan, M. B., et al., Cell, 71, 587 (1992)], Cyclin G [Cyclin G: Okamoto, K., EMBO J., 13, 4816 (1994)], BAX [Miyashita, T., et al., Cell, 80, 293 (1995)], and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 3 [IGF-BP3: Buckbinder, L., et al., Nature, 377, 646 (1995)].
The protein encoded by the p21 gene is an inhibitor protein for cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK), and it has been found that the wild type p53 protein regulates the cell cycle in an inhibitory way through p21 [Harper, J. W., et al., Cell, 75, 805 (1993): Xiong, Y., et al., Nature, 366, 707 (1993): Gu, Y., et al., Nature, 366, 701 (1993)]. Furthermore, the p21 gene reportedly binds to the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) to directly inhibit DNA replication [Waga, S., et al., Nature, 369, 574 (1994)]. In addition, the p21 gene has been found to the same gene as the SDI1 gene which induces senescence of cells to inhibit DNA synthesis [Noda., A., et al., Exp. Cell Res., 211, 90 (1994)].
MDM2 binds to the p53 protein to inactivate the transcriptional regulation activity of the gene protein, leading to the putative conclusion that MDM2 is acting as a negative feedback regulating factor.
IGF-BP3 is a negative regulating factor in IGF signalization. Therefore, the increase of the IGF-BP3 gene by the p53 protein suggests the possible outcome that the p53 protein induces suppression of growth of IGF-dependent cells.
Meanwhile, the wild type p53 protein reportedly induces apoptosis of myelocytic leukemia cells [Yonish-Rouach, E., et al., Nature, 352, 345 (1991)]. Induction of thymocyte apoptosis by irradiation does not take place in p53-defective mice [Lowe, S. W., Nature, 362, 847 (1993): Clarke, A. R., et al., Nature 362, 849 (1993)] and, in the crystalline lens, retina and brain, the p53 protein induces apoptic death of cells deprived of normal retinal blastoma gene (RB gene) activity [Pan, H., and Griep, A. E., Genes Dev., 8, 1285 (1994): Morgenbesser, S. D., et al., Nature 371, 72 (1994): Howes, K. A., Genes Dev., 8, 1300 (1994): Symonds, H., et al., Cell, 78, 703 (1994)]. E. White proposes that the p53 protein is useful for a surveillance of RB gene mutation and that the protein is likely to induce apoptosis of the cells in which a RB gene mutation is involved [White, E., Nature, 371, 21 (1994)].
Furthermore, in the mouse erythroid leukemia cell line in which the temperature-sensitive p53 gene only is expressed, a fall in temperature results in reconversion of the mutant p53 gene to the wild type to induce apoptosis and the mutant p53 gene isolated therefrom imparts the ability to grow in soft agar medium to a p53-defective fibroblast line (impart anchorage independence) [Xu et al., Jpn, J. Cancer Res. 86: 284-291 (1995); Kato et al., Int. J. Oncol. 9: 269-277].
BAX is able to bind to bcl-2, which is an inhibitor of apoptosis, and encouratges apoptic cell death [Oltvai, Z. M., et al., Cell, 74, 609 (1993)]. The increase in the BAX gene and decrease in bcl-2 by the p53 protein are involved in the apoptosis of the mouse leukemia cell line M1 [Miyashita, T., et al., Oncogene, 9, 1799 (1994)] and Fas, which is one of the signal transducers for apoptosis, is increased in non-small-cell lung cancer and erythroleukemia [Owen-Schaub, L. B., et al., Mol. Cell Biol., 15, 3032 (1995)].
The many investigations referred to above have revealed that the p53 protein either activates or represses the transcription of various genes not limited to the p21 gene. Moreover, even the mutant p53 protein defected in the transcriptional regulating function is capable of interacting with other intracellular proteins to transmit signals and discharge a DNA damage repairing function.
Among the functions of the p53 protein which have so far been identified are a transcription regulating function, a signal transducer function through binding to other intracellular proteins, a constituent element of a protein complex related to DNA replication, a DNA binding function, and exonuclease activity, and it is conjectured to be the result of a compound interplay of these functions that causes the arrest of the cell cycle in cells, induction of apoptosis, DNA repair, regulation of DNA replication, and induction of differentiation.
Furthermore, it is not true that the functions of the p53 protein are expressed only in the event of a gene damage but it is reported that when the living tissue is subjected to various stresses such as viral infection, cytokine stimulation, hypoxia, a change in the nucleotide pool, drug-induced metabolic abnormality, etc., the stimuli trigger quantitative or qualitative changes in the p53 protein. The p53 protein subjected to the quantitative or qualitative regulation expresses its functions, such as signal transduction through interactions with other proteins and control of the transcription of other genes, to regulate the replication of DNA in cells of the living tissue subjected to biological stresses, repair the cells by suspending the cell cycle, eliminate cells by way of apoptosis, or promote the differentiation of cells, thereby contributing to the protection of the living tissue against the stresses [Ganman, C. E., et al., Genes Dev., 9, 600-611 (1995): Graeber, T. G., et al., Nature, 379, 88-91 (1996): Linke, S. P., et al., Genes Dev., 10, 934-947 (1996): Xiang, H., et al., J. Neurosci., 16, 6753-6765 (1996)].
In view of the existence of p53 gene mutations in a half of human tumors, clinical application of the p53 gene and its product protein to the diagnosis and therapy of tumors has been a subject of study in recent years. The method of detecting tumor cells invading the lymph node or body fluid by carrying out a PCR using primers specifically recognizing the mutation site of the p53 gene can be an effective diagnostic technique for estimating the scope of tumor invasion or predicting a recurrence of the tumor [Hayashi, H., et al., Lancet, 345, 1257-1259 (1995)].
Furthermore, taking advantage of the apoptosis-inducing activity of the p53 protein, a gene therapy comprising introducing a wild type p53 gene into the tumor cell by means of a virus vector is being practiced in the United States and its effectiveness has been reported [Roth, J. A., et al., Nature Med., 2, 985-991 (1996)]. Recently, in Japan, too, this gene therapy has been started in several locations.
Meanwhile, more than the majority of human tumors are not associated with p53 gene mutation and, from this fact, the possibility of existence of other tumorigenesis-inhibitory proteins analogous to the p53 protein has been pointed out.
The inventors of the present invention previously found that a p53 gene mutation cannot be a useful premonitory indicator of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL).
Recently, a novel gene, named p73, which has high homology to said p53 gene has been identified [Kaghad, M., et al., Cell, 90, 809-819 (1997)]. According to the information available to the present inventors, the p73 protein shows 29% homology to the human p53 protein in the transcriptional activator domain (the 1st˜45th amino acid region). Moreover, this p73 protein has a homology of 63% in the DNA binding domain (the 113rd˜290th amino acid region) having 6 complementary conserved sequences called hot spots of mutation; and a homology of 38% in the oligomerization domain (the 319th 363rd amino acid region). With regard to the C-terminal domain, however, no significant homology has been recognized between p73 protein and p53 protein.
It is reported that excessive expression of the p73 protein inhibits the growth of a neuroblastoma cell line and SAOS2 cells (an osteosarcoma cell line) and that a transient expression of the p73 protein promotes the apoptosis of SAOS2 cells and baby hamster's kidney cells [Bruce Clurman and Mark Groudine, Nature, 389, 122-123 (1997): Christine, A., et al., Nature, 389, 191-194 (1997)].
However, the p73 protein is somewhat different from the p53 protein in that the former is expressed only at low levels in normal tissues. Moreover, the p73 protein is different from the p53 protein in that the expression of the former protein in a neuroblastoma cell line is not induced by UV irradiation or a low dose of actinomycin D.
Therefore, it is not true that the p73 protein has the exactly the same functions as those of the p53 protein and, at the present, much depends on further research. There is a report arguing that, based on the observations so far made, this p73 may be categorized as a putative tumor suppressive factor in neuroblastoma.
The present invention has for its object to provide information on a novel gene and gene product related to the morphogenesis of human tumors. More particularly, the object of the present invention is to provide a novel gene analogous to the p53 gene which, as mentioned above, is already known as a tumor suppressor gene and the corresponding gene product.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide primers and probes each comprising a partial DNA of said gene, vectors harboring said gene, transformants as transformed using any of said vectors, and a method of producing said gene product which comprises growing any of said transformants.